Omid TofighianCorresponding author

Beyond the Myth / Philosophy Dichotomy. Foundations for an Interdependent Perspective

Article
15/1 - Spring 2010, pages 175-189
Date of online publication: 15 juin 2010
Date of publication: 01 juin 1020

Abstract

Philosophy vs. myth; argument vs. narrative. Are these oppositions outdated clichés or are they realistic dichotomies with universal application? Definitions of myth are often confronted with exceptions. Mythic themes and elements regularly surface in philosophy, and vice versa. The boundary separating myth and philosophy continues to be redrawn and the status of the two continually reevaluated. By moving away from an all-encompassing definition of myth I aim to propose a foundation upon which an interdependent relationship between myth and philosophy can be interpreted. New possibilities for interconnection between the two will be suggested along with more compelling questions on which to base inquiries.

Keywords

Cite this article

Tofighian, Omid. “Beyond the Myth / Philosophy Dichotomy: Foundations for an Interdependent Perspective.” Forum Philosophicum 15, no. 1 (2010): 175–89. doi:10.35765/forphil.2010.1501.11.

Bibliography

Anderson, Pamela Sue. “Myth and Feminist Philosophy.” In Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Kevin Schilbrack, 101–122. London: Routledge, 2002.

Boedeker, Deborah Dickmann, “Epic Heritage and Mythical Patterns.” In Brill's Companion to Herodotus, edited by Egbert J. Bakker, Hans van Wees, and Irene J. F. de Jong, 97–116. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Bakker, Egbert J., Hans van Wees, and Irene J. F. de Jong eds. Brill's Companion to Herodotus. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Pantheon Books, 1949.

Capps, Walter H. Religious Studies: The Making of a Discipline. Minneapolis: Augsberg Fortress Press, 1995.

Carroll, Noël. Beyond Aesthetics: Philosophical Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511605970.

Carroll, Noël. “Interpretation, History, and Narrative.” In Beyond Aesthetics: Philosophical Essays, 133–156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511605970.010.

Cassirer, Ernst. Myth of the State. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961.

Compton, Todd. Victim of the Muses: Poet As Scapegoat, Warrior, and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and History. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2006.

Cornfeld, Gaalyahu. Archaeology of the Bible: Book by Book. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.

Coupe, Laurence. Myth. London: Routledge, 1997.

Doty, William G. Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals. Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1986.

Flood, Christopher. “Myth and Ideology.” In Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Kevin Schilbrack, 174–190. London: Routledge, 2002.

Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957.

Gerhart, Mary, and Allan Melvin Russell. “Myth and Public Science.” In Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Kevin Schilbrack, 191–206. London: Routledge, 2002.

Gould, Eric. Mythical Intentions in Modern Literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Hatab, Lawrence J. Nietzsche's Life Sentence: Coming to Terms with Eternal Recurrence. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Lentricchia, Frank. After the New Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. “The Structural Study of Myth.” The Journal of American Folklore 68, no. 270 (1955): 428–444. doi:10.2307/536768.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Savage Mind. Translated by John Weightman and Doreen Weightman. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Totemism. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973.

Lincoln, Bruce. Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Mehta, J. L, 1985, “The Concept of Progress”, in India and the West: The Problem of Understanding, 69–82. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1985.

Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the Folktale. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968.

The Holy Qur’an. Translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Islamic Propagation Centre International, 1946.

Schilbrack, Kevin. “Introduction: On the Use of Philosophy in the Study of Myths.” In Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Kevin Schilbrack, 1–17. London: Routledge, 2002.

Schilbrack, Kevin, ed. Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2002.

Schmitz, Thomas A. Modern Literary Theory and Ancient Texts: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.

Segal, Robert A. “Myth as Primitive Philosophy: The Case of E.B. Tylor.” In Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Kevin Schilbrack, 18–45. London: Routledge, 2002.

Sharpe, Eric John. Comparative Religion: A History. London: Duckworth, 1975.

White, Hayden V. Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect.. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

White, Hayden V. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.

White, Hayden V. “The Modernist Event.” In Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect, 66–86. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Zima, Peter V. The Philosophy of Modern Literary Theory. Athlone: Continuum, 1999.

Copyright